Why not trade rain for Texas heat?

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — They honored the great Dan Jenkins here this week. This is the 200th major golf championship that the Texas-born writer has attended, and this is his 56th Open (“After my 100th,” he said, “maybe the USGA will finally give me a parking space”).

His first Open came in 1941, when he was an 11-year-old growing up in Fort Worth.

Here’s the kicker: There have been only two more U.S. Opens played in Texas since then. Dallas hosted one in 1952 and Houston held the last one, in 1969.

The state of New York, in contrast, has seen nine since Texas had its last one.

Most assume the USGA would prefer to avoid the Texas heat in mid-June. But that doesn’t explain Southern Hills in Tulsa. I was there in 2001, and it was hot.

So why not return to the land of Hogan and Nelson? Why not play at least one Open every half century in a state that has the opposite problem with rain?

The Open sites are already determined through 2017. So if Texas gets awarded the very next one, which is unlikely, it would be 48 years between Opens.

_____________

My personal Open history is less impressive. I’ve attended seven U.S. Opens, and six of them have been delayed by weather.